Yair Golan launches a billion-shekel crime-fighting plan and signals his bid for Public Security Minister
At a Democrats party event in Nazareth, an emergency plan called "Root Treatment" was launched to combat crime in the Arab sector. According to the party's data, 889 people, including 49 children, have been murdered during the current government's term.
The Democrats party launched its campaign in the Arab sector on Monday in Nazareth and presented the "Root Treatment" emergency plan to combat crime and violence. The party chairman, Major General (res.) Yair Golan, declared that the Democrats will demand the Ministry of Public Security in the next government and pledged: "On our watch, children will not be murdered in the streets."
The event was attended by Knesset members Naama Lazimi, Gilad Kariv, and Efrat Rayten, alongside members of the Democrats list Sumia Bashir and Ali Salalha, and families of crime victims. The party presented a plan that includes establishing a national cabinet to combat crime, a joint task force for law enforcement agencies, and a dedicated budget of one billion shekels per year.
According to the plan, in the very first week of the next government's term, a crime cabinet that will meet weekly and a special national task force will be established. The Democrats propose recruiting 5% of the elite personnel from the police, Shin Bet, IDF, and the Israel Prison Service (IPS) for this effort, who will operate from a dedicated situation room.
The plan also sets a goal of shortening the criminal process for serious crimes under the title "From arrest to imprisonment within nine months." To this end, the party proposes strengthening the enforcement chain, establishing dedicated courts for serious crimes, and promoting a legislative package that includes stricter sentencing, minimum sentences, and the use of biometric measures.
Another pillar deals with the economic fight against criminal organizations. The Democrats propose establishing the "Tzeltzel (Ring) - Crime" unit, which will act against the organizations' funding sources and cooperate with the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Israel. According to the plan, the unit will have access to banking information and will be able to use the assistance of the Shin Bet and Mossad, as well as reach out to international entities.
During the event, Golan displayed weapons that the party says are used by criminal organizations, including M16 rifles, Uzi and Kalashnikov submachine guns, MAG machine guns, and even LAW missiles. "According to various estimates, between one hundred thousand and almost half a million such weapons are currently in the hands of criminal organizations and are aimed at Israeli citizens," he said.
"We will demand the Ministry of Public Security portfolio, and we will lead the most far-reaching plan that has ever existed here to fight criminal organizations, Golan added. A country that knows how to reach any terrorist, anywhere in the world, knows how to reach any head of a criminal organization, anywhere in Israel."
The plan also includes measures in the fields of education, welfare, and rehabilitation. The party proposes establishing "Team 49," named after the 49 children who they say were murdered during the term of Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir. Among the proposed measures: restoring the "Stopping the Bleeding" program in localities defined as violence hotspots, adding safety instructors in schools, prisoner rehabilitation programs, and imposing an appointed committee on local authorities plagued by criminal organizations.
According to the Democrats' data, during the current government's term, 889 people have been murdered by criminals in the Arab sector, including 49 children. The party emphasized that the fight against crime is part of a broader plan for the Arab sector in the fields of planning, education, employment, and economic development.
MK Naama Lazimi said at the event: "I don't want to talk about the racists from the government, but about our partners for the next government, those who know that living together is the answer to restoration and repair. Democracy does not exclude the minority within it - the Arab society must be part of the rebuilding of a solidary and democratic Israel."
MK Efrat Rayten, chair of the Democrats faction: "We will not accept an institutional policy that makes citizens feel transparent or second-class, and we will not tolerate the erosion of the rule of law. At the same time, we will pass a substantive amendment to the Nation-State Law, which will ensure Israel's status as the nation-state of the Jewish people, but at the same time will explicitly anchor within it the state's full commitment to complete equal rights for all its citizens, regardless of religion, race, or gender, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence."
MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv: "Netanyahu has marked twenty percent of the residents of the State of Israel - over two million citizens - as enemies. We will strive for a Jewish-Arab political partnership, not only as a means, but also as a value-based goal. We will treat two million people in the State of Israel as what they are: equal citizens in a democratic state."
